Process Design, Modeling, and Flowsheets

Session Chair & Co-Chair:

Session Description:

This session covers the application of computer aided engineering to improve plant performance and overall business results for the process industry. Topics may include performance monitoring, troubleshooting and plant design using modeling and flowsheet softwares. Focus will be on industrial situations and scenarios with attempt to address the various aspects of applying the models.

Thermodynamic Simulations provide a critical but limited basis for process design. Adding transport calculations can produce results that agree more closely with data obtained from actual operations. Several examples will illustrate the point.

Chemical Engineering Process Design Methodology at The University of Illinois - Chicago

The senior chemical engineering design capstone course has a special place in academia as it brings our students entire school and internship experience to focus on designing a chemical process(s). For the past 5 years, the second semester UIC process design course problem has been created jointly by a team of industry advisors and the instructor. Nine (9) industry advisors come from Ambitech, Jacobs, Middough, Superior Engineers, and UOP to assist in this ambitious effort.

This years project has been the design of an "Integrated Shale Gas Industrial Complex". Various chemicals are produced from natural gas and the plant is split into nine units. Each mentor guides a 4-student team. The overall objective is to learn how to create a conceptual stage gate 1, design basis package, modeled after the UOP "Schedule A Package" Students learn how to assemble their own portion of the design as well as interact with the other 8 units to assure maximal material and energy utilization and safe and economical operation. The use of spreadsheets and modeling, principally Aspen, is featured in the last 1/2 of semester after students have mastered the basic heuristic problem.

Process Development Aspects

Rajat Basu, Honeywell

In large chemical companies a wide variety of process simulation activities are carried out. In this article we are going to talk about two of different aspects of process modeling. First we are going to describe the development of Operator Training Software (OTS) at Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT) chemical plant and its utilization in training operators. Honeywell’s PMT plant did not have any operator training system and the operators were given basic guidance to handle instabilities in the plant. This prompted the development of OTS for the plant. It started with existing steady state models and thermo packages developed by Honeywell PMT engineers and scientists which were well validated against plant data. Honeywell Process Solution engineers teamed up with PMT engineers to develop dynamic models in UNISIM software. These dynamic models were then utilized to develop the OTS for the plant. It was validated against upsets which were seen in the plant and finally implemented in the plant for operator training. This helped the operators to handle upsets much better and resulted in improved plant operation.

In another Honeywell PMT activity, process modeling for a chemical plant operation is required to facilitate the global know-how transfer via reliable model package. Process models are desired to be capable of describing the overall material and heat balance, recording component distributions and tracking complete stream information throughout all plant areas. The process modeling is also aiming at the plant operation optimization, with better understanding of the process areas. Taking consideration of the complexity of the operation process and the depth of this modeling project, three phases have been adopted to control the time frame and available resources. A bridge to connect the daily plant operation with the virtual training module, the established real-time simulation shall bring model-based operation analysis and decision support to non-expert engineers and plant operators. End users utilize the user-friendly front end with built-in button/links to run process model for each area, and the process model predictions are able to mimic the real-time plant data.